Beyond the Pack’s Law: My stepsister or nobody else

Hayley’s POVUpstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

I wasn’t the type to kill, but the feral rage within me was just so amplified and primal. I wanted blood, and that was what I was seeing. I turned to see a stunned Aiden staring at me. He had never seen me feral and in my wolf form before. “You… Hayley?” He called, astonishment written in his eyes. The change got to him, but I guess he didn’t have the time to process it when I swiftly knocked a soldier out that nearly attacked him from behind. I growled, wondering who sent these buffoons to attack us. Aiden snapped out of his daze, and we both made short work of the remaining hazmat troopers, ripping them apart with those wicked talons and fangs. I’d never killed anyone before that night, but in my mutated hybrid form, dealing out merciless slaughter just felt… natural. Scary, but also kind of exhilarating in a twisted way. This was what Jada wanted, wasn’t it? With the soldiers’ mangled corpses littering the cavern floor, Aiden turned to me and let out this deep, rumbling snarl that made my hackles stand on end. I lifted one of the guards, who was still sane, up into the air and growled in his face. “Who sent you?” I questioned him while he trembled in my hand, like he was going to die of fear. “Answer me!!” He gasped, still trembling, but a word didn’t escape from his lips. “He’s not worth it because he’s obviously a simp.” Aiden didn’t even allow me to register his words before snapping the soldier’s neck. “And it appears they’re not done. They’re still approaching. We have to retreat to the safe house; I’ll link with my father to send more troops so we can utilize the threats.” I just kind of nodded dumbly, my mind still reeling from the rush of power and feral intensity. Aiden grabbed me by the scruff and started hauling me towards a secluded backway out of the cavern. Then suddenly, things took a weirder turn… We emerged into this dimly lit concrete bunker that looked straight out of a Cold War movie. Rows of dusty file cabinets lined the walls, and these old computer terminals blinked from recessed workstations, like this place had been frozen in time for decades. “Where are we?” I rasped, my talons screeching against the floor. I could taste the musty air, thick with the metallic tang of aging technology and machinery. Aiden just shushed me with another of his guttural growls, his nostrils flaring as he scanned the area with preternatural senses. A few beats passed before he relaxed marginally. “We’re in one of my pack’s ancestral safe-houses,” he explained, moving to an old computer terminal and keying in a sequence that caused a hidden door to grind open. “A relic of the old times before our kind was forced into hiding. We’ll be here till my dad sends his troop.” Hiding? From what exactly? And just how ancient was this whole werewolf pack deal he kept alluding to? I started to get the sense that there were way more layers to Aiden’s backstory than he’d ever let on. We made our way deeper into the bunker complex, prowling down gloomy, derelict corridors that looked straight out of an apocalypse preppers’ wet dream. Storage rooms lined with dusty military rations and ammo crates; armories packed with antique guns and blades; even what looked like a triage ward with eerie stains on the cots. “Just how long has your… pack been squatting down here?” I asked as we passed through an intersection with faded ‘DECON’ stenciled on the walls. Aiden flicked an ear and kept moving, clearly not keen on giving up any more of his secrets than necessary. We walked on in tense silence until reaching a secured entrance with a retinal scanner, which somehow acknowledged Aiden’s blood-amber werewolf gaze and admitted us. We then entered a room where I could also make out armored figures clustered around the center dais in hushed conversation, their faces hidden by combat hoods and masks. “Are those…?” I trailed off, my heart pounding in my mutated chest. “Brothers of the Unmaitred.” Aiden nodded, hackles raised as they registered his presence. “It seems the assault on the ritual grounds was just the vanguard.” One of the armored figures slipped from the group and approached, his hooded cowl shifting as he examined us. “Alpha,” he spoke. “I’m glad to see you escaped the hunters unscathed.” Okay, wait… hunters? Like supernatural monster hunters? And what was with this weirdo outfit calling Aiden their ‘alpha’? This was all just getting more confusing by the second. “We need backup. These hunters won’t give up so easily.” Aiden stated. “You’re right.” A mysterious figure spoke up. “And they must have assigned agents to mark us while we were occupied with the awakening rituals.” Awakening rituals? Oh god, was he talking about that crazy transformation under the Blood Moon? “Then it’s as we feared,” Aiden growled, his predatory stare lingering over the rapidly updating holograms. “They aim to totally eradicate us while we’re in disarray.” “Hold up!” I shouted once the echoes died down, getting right in Aiden’s face with bared fangs. “I want some damn answers, now! What is all of this-these hunters, your secret werewolf pack, Unmaitred, or whatever? And why are they so bent on killing us, huh?” For a long, tense moment, Aiden just glowered down at me, and I could smell the heady musk of raging territoriality wafting off him. Like he was a hairsbreadth from laying me out in a dominance display. Just as the tension became unbearable, his shoulders finally slumped, and some of the menace drained from those blazing amber orbs. “I owe you the full truth.” He began with a low rasp. With that ominous preamble, Aiden launched into a wild tale that put everything I’d ever known about the world on its head-the same I had seen fight with Jada. I stepped back, trying to drink the sight of him in. He opened his mouth to speak, but then we heard a bang. Aiden stepped forward, shielding me behind him. The others stepped forward as well, ready to fight as the bang got closer. Then the door was banged open… Rather than the raging hunters, we saw Aiden’s father and a pack of troops behind him. I sighed with relief; we didn’t have to worry about the hunters anymore. For now.